What is A Guide to Finances for Creatives with Peter Ball about?

Join us for a Two-part Factory Seminar – A Guide to Finances for Creatives led by published author and start-up business expert Peter Ball. From workshop planning to ordering materials, selling work, choosing the right business insurance, taxes and delivering projects – managing finances is vital to ensuring you don’t overspend. This means you can set your prices, manage your time effectively and create a sustainable business. 

Peter will provide you with the tools and knowledge needed to manage your creative business and practice financials with confidence. Peter is the author of ‘Start A Small UK Business: Business Planning Tools To Turn Your Ideas Into Business Success’ and will lean on his experience in the world of business to help you avoid common pitfalls and to get your financial essentials in place.  Having helped hundreds of entrepreneurs to take their first steps in the world of business, Peter will share his best tips and guidance.

What will Part 1 cover?  

• Introduction to the book ‘Start A Small UK Business: Business Planning Tools To Turn Your Ideas Into Business Success’ 
• Bookkeeping and making taxes digital 
• Taxes and HMRC demystified – what do you need to know 
• Different trading entities – sole traders limited companies and partnerships 
• Business insurance

What will Part 2 cover?  

• Introduction to business opportunity profiles 
• Cash flow – what is it? Why use it? 
• Business planning 
• Market research and target audience 
• Introducing the improvement circle 
• Painting a picture that pulls everything together 

Who is the session for? 

• People who feel unsure about how to get started or how to make and use a business plan
• People who are unsure about bookkeeping and what they need to keep their creative business financials in order 
• People who don’t know what taxes they should be paying or if they should be registered with HMRC 
• People who feel unsure about how to make and use a budget or cash flow 
• People who are unsure about market research and how to find your target audience 
• Students or people who are early in their career and want to start building a tool kit to help manage a sustainable career 

Who is delivering? 

Peter Ball has a background of 30 plus years in banking. He proudly states that he was one of the last bank managers that could lend money without the computer saying yes or no. Currently, he’s a Business advisor at the Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce and a director of his business consultancy company ‘Bluebell business’. He is also a chaplain working with ‘ministry at work’ which provides help and support in the business community.

In November 2021 he launched ‘How to Start a Small UK Business’ with Co director Sandra Brookes. The first of three books, each book will take Diane the artist through different parts of her financial journey, from starting her business to growing her business to eventually owning her own gallery. The book is jargon free, with simple, focused and effective bywords. Both Staffs Chambers of Commerce and Staffordshire University use the book for their entrepreneurship start up courses.

Where does it take place? 

This event will take place online via Zoom

How to book?

Book your free tickets for the two-part Factory Seminar – A Guide to Finances for Creatives via the link on this page. Please note that each session is booked separately, so please add both sessions to your cart if you want to attend both sessions. Visit our What’s On page to see what other events are happening.

Online Access:

• In advance of each event, we aim to share an overview of the event. This may include preparation tasks for the participant.
• We will enable captions for anyone to access during the event and download them after
• We will record each online event so you can re-watch it
• We will share a resource pack after the event. This will include summary notes, relevant links shared during the event, the event transcript and the event recording

If there is anything we can do to support your participation in the event, please email rhiannon@britishceramicsbiennial.com to discuss what we can put in place for you.

What is Factory? 

This workshop is proudly run as part of the creative business support Factory, which is a partnership between Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce, Staffordshire University, British Ceramics Biennial and ACAVA. The programme is part funded by the European Regional Development Fund. Visit our main Factory page for more information about other opportunities and workshops run through Factory.